Cursed Mountain Brings Survival Horror to the Nintendo Wii

The Nintendo Wii has a family friendly image and not one often associated with the survival horror genre. Cursed Mountain is set to change all that. While light on the guts and gore of next-gen games, atmosphere and storytelling do the shocking here.

The story of the game has you climbing a mountain looking for your lost brother, Frank, who disappeared when searching for a Buddhist artifact called "Terma". It's the combination of Buddhist and Eastern philosophy that gives it a very unique feel, as well as a deep well of background to draw upon.

The exclusive release on the Wii has done wonders for the graphics in Cursed Mountain. Rather than having toned down the gore because of the platform's capabilities, the developers have simply opted to spend the time making the best adventure they can and it shows.

Likewise the controls have been planned from the start for the Wii. It's not a bad port where some gimmick has been thrown at the control system to make it seem Wii-friendly. Instead, the game makes use of the motion control in all aspects of the gameplay, from combat to simple walking.

The way up the mountain isn't predefined. You can choose how you try and make it to the top, and as you move forwards, the game throws new challenges at you, such as the thinning of the air as you climb, making you race around trying to find discarded oxygen bottles from unfortunate climbers.

The combination of puzzles and sections which allow you to decide how to progress, with decent graphics - a novelty on the Wii, and a well thought out control system, make it an ideal game for the adult who is looking for something a bit more involving on their Wii. It's not gratuitous by any means, but Cursed Mountain is not for the faint hearted either.

Inventing an Original Board Game

While there are many different board games out there for people to enjoy, sometimes you can get a little bored with what is available, especially if you are a board game enthusiast. This can be a little off-putting, for board games are one of the best ways to pass the time, as they generally require both brainpower and allow for social interaction. There are ways around this problem, however. You could either take an existing board game and change the rules in some small way which could completely influence the way that the game plays out. Or, perhaps if you are a creatively-inclined person, you could actually be inspired to make a board game of your own design.

It really shouldn't take much for you to create your own board game. Generally, all you need is a simple idea that can be executed within the realm of a board game. It has to be unique enough to differ from existing board games, to make it worth the effort of creating the game, but it probably should not be too complex for the harder the idea is to execute, the more likely the game is to fail. The first thing you will need to do, when deciding how to construct your board game, is to determine whether the idea is actually feasible.

After you have determined whether making this board game will be worth the effort, you must determine how many players the game is suited for. It is important to remember that most games need to be adaptable for a number of different players, as the sizes of the groups playing them can vary from time to time. Once this is decided, you need to figure out the actual design of the board. While you are able to design your board in any way that you desire, it can be important to remember that the more simple everything is, the more accessible it will be to everyone playing. A cluttered board can lead to mass confusion, it may simply be easier to have a clean design for everyone to experience.

One of the most important factors in designing a board game is to figure out how each player will make their moves. Will there be random movement, such as dice or a deck of cards? If either of these are true, special allocations must be made for them. Spare dice can be picked up at most gaming stores. Decks of cards may be a bit trickier to make, as they will probably need to be hand-drawn. Laminating them after would be wise, as it would help protect them from getting damaged and leaving different marks on the cards which, in turn, could help players identify which cards stand for what.

Tokens are of vast importance when designing a game. How will the players be able to tell which pieces they are and where they are on the board? Tokens needs to be differentiated between each other with ease, usually with different colors, shapes, or sometimes sizes. Whatever the method used, they are all important parts of making your own designer board game. With these few basic steps, you can be sure to have all the very basic pieces together to putting your game in to order. All you need now is concise rules, a little determination, and your very own board game should soon be playable!